Mike Andrew Consulting

Facebook Reigns as Top Global SocNet

By mike, Sep 29 in blog with 0 comments

A look at the top social networking brands worldwide released by comScore in September 2011 revealed that, perhaps unsurprisingly, Facebook.com ranked as the top social network by a wide margin. In June 2011, 734.2 million people visited Facebook.com globally, an increase of 33% from the previous year.

Meanwhile Twitter.com climbed its way to the #2 position reaching 144.4 million visitors (up 56%), followed by Windows Live Profile at 119.5 million visitors. Professional social network LinkedIn.com reached more than 84 million visitors globally to secure the #4 spot, followed by Chinese site QQ.com Microblogging with 74.8 million visitors.

Worldwide SocNet Audience Passes 1B

Across the globe, social networking continues to grow as new users adopt the activity as a routine part of their online experience. In June 2011, comScore analysis shows 1.1 billion people (age 15 and older accessing from a home or work location) visited a social networking site worldwide, an increase of 22% from June 2010.

Globally, 81.4% of all internet users visit social networking destinations, representing one of the top online activities worldwide. In comparison, close to 1.4 billion people used the internet in June 2011, a 10% jump from June 2010.

Asia-Pacific Leads in SocNet Visitors, Europe in Minutes

Examining regional social network usage trends, comScore finds differences in share of visitors and share of minutes. Asia-Pacific leads in share of visitors (32.5%), followed by Europe (30.1%) and North America (18.1%).

However, Europe takes a 38.1% share of minutes, followed by North America (21.5%). Interestingly, Asia-Pacific’s share of minutes (16.5%) is only roughly half as large as its share of visitors.

Latin American Countries Make Strong Time Showing

Globally, Internet users averaged 5.4 hours on social networking sites during the month of June. A look at the top markets based on the average number of hours spent social networking revealed that half of the top 10 markets were Latin American countries, demonstrating what comScore calls the vast engagement visitors in these markets have with social networks.

Argentina’s online users averaged 10 hours on social networking sites in June to rank third overall, while Chileans averaged 8.7 hours. Colombians ranked seventh with 8.4 hours per visitor in the social networking category, while Venezuelans ranked eighth at eight hours. Visitors in Mexico (7.1 hours) also ranked among the top tier.

Israel ranked first with 11.8 hours, followed by the Russian Federation (10.6 hours). Turkey ranked fourth (9.6 hours), while Philippines ranked sixth (8.4 hours) and Canada ranked ninth (7.2 hours). Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific each had one country in the top 10 time list, while Middle East-Africa had two.

Nielsen: Facebook Dominates US Web Brands in Time

Facebook clearly dominates other top US web brands in average monthly time spent per user, according to data from The Nielsen Company. In July 2011, the average Facebook user spent five hours, 18 minutes and 40 seconds on the site.

In comparison, the brand with the second-highest average time per user in July, AOL Media Network, only averaged two hours, 17 minutes and 46 seconds, less than half Facebook’s total. Yahoo trailed closely behind AOL with a monthly average of two hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds. There was then another gap of almost 40 minutes between Yahoo and YouTube, which average one hour, 39 minutes and two seconds per user.

About the author

Mike Andrew has been working with the Internet and small business for over 12 years. Mike has been a keynote speaker at conventions and seminars and conducted social media training sessions all over the world. Mike has an extensive media background having worked in electronic media for over 30 years. Mike specialises in social media and Internet marketing strategy, SEO techniques and search engine marketing campaigns. His articles appear on numerous blogs around the web as well as national magazines.